Lost Momentum

The last week seems like a blur. We have had Christmas, time at home relaxing, a stomach bug, and a hernia surgery (my husband) all in one week. I finally feel like I might be emerging from the fog (maybe).

I really hope to start sewing again this week. I have totally lost my momentum . I keep wanting to sew and needing to sew to fulfill a wholesale order, but have not been able to make myself actually do it. I haven't taken my camera out since Christmas either and I think she might feel a bit neglected. However, I have made 4 loaves of bread with my new breadmaker so at least we have fresh bread!!

Since I can't have a post without photos, I thought I would share some of my kids and their cousins taken on Christmas Eve. Even though the lighting is horrible and the quality is not the best these photos crack me up. Please just ignore the red eyes too. I just didn't have the energy to edit them.

Ok kids over here.

No over here.

The clapping is sweet, but look at me. PLEASE!

Ok, one out of four isn't bad.

Seriously, just look at me. You don't even have to smile.

It's just not going to happen, is it?

Oh no, now they are escaping.

It's no use.

Yeah, just tackle her. Why not?

That's much better.

It is a nice Christmas Tree. Look at all the candy canes at the bottom of the tree.

Oh sweet baby.

You can't say I didn't try to get a nice photo of all the kids.

Best Shot Monday- Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas and several much needed days off. I really could get use to not doing anything, but hanging out. I was sewing like a mad woman for several weeks prior to Christmas. With all the preparation for Christmas and my Etsy shop, I was just plum worn out. Last week sales slowed down and then stopped, so I was not really thinking about that any more which was nice. Then like always Christmas was here and gone in a flash. On Friday and the rest of the weekend, we just relaxed and played with all our new toys.

Santa brought me a speedlight for my camera, so hopefully my indoor shots will improve considerably (now I just have to learn how to use the thing). My parents got me a breadmaker so now I will be able to easily make homemade bread.

I did not do a great job capturing all the moments that transpired over the long Christmas weekend, but I will leave you with a few.

Did I mention I love my new flash? All the shots above were taken with my new speedlight!! Here are a couple more taken pre-speedlight

I don't know if I can pick a Best Shot. It's too hard for me to choose between the first and the fourth one.

Visit Tracey's for more Best Shot Monday.

Best Shot Monday- Unexpected Visitor

We had a little visitor at our house yesterday. My husband took these pictures so I can't take credit. The injured hawk started out in the neighbors tree and then settled down next to the house for the night.

He was perched up on our fence this morning.

I hope that he will be ok. My husband contacted the Wildlife Resource Agency so hopefully they will come get him and nurse him back to health.

I am making this last shot my Best Shot. I can't believe how close my husband got to the hawk.

Visit Tracey's for more Best Shot Monday.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas Ice Exhibit

On Monday, I shared the family portraits that were taken at the exhibit. So today, I thought I would show you the rest for Stacy's Theme Thursday. Just to make sure everyone knows. Those coats were given to us as we entered the exhibit to prevent us from freezing to death. The exhibit is VERY cold, but totally worth it.

Do you think they are ready to go in?

Miller's coat was a little big.

Entering Who-ville.

The grinch is pretty scaring looking.

The kids loved the ice slide.

At the end of the exhibit there was a beautiful nativity scene.

And what do you do after freezing your tail off for an hour? Get some ice cream of course!!

This definitely ranks as one of our most memorable evenings of the holiday season so far. Head on over to Stacy's to see more.

Wordless Wednesday- O Christmas Tree

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Bokeh and Beer Cozies

I finally took some time to play around with creating bokeh from our Christmas Tree lights. Christina posted some photos that were so cool. Of course, I had to try it for myself. I put my 50mm lens on and since I have to manually focus it I had no problems getting the effect.

I also wanted to give a quick Etsy shop update. As of today, I have made 72 sales. Wooo!Hoo! Things have started slowing down, which is not a bad thing. While I have sold other items, the coffee cozies seem to be the hottest item. To be honest I am getting a little tired of making coffee sleeves. So in an effort to expand my horizon beyond coffee cozies, I made some beer cozies last night. Check them out. They are a little bigger and more versatile. You can use them on many types of bottles even a Sigg or Klean Kanteen.

Best Shot Monday- Family Portrait

On Saturday we took the kids to see the How the Grinch Stole Christmas Ice exhibit at Opryland Hotel. This exhibit is really awesome and the kids had a blast. I will have a more detailed post later in the week when I have a chance to go through the photos. For now I will leave you with my Best Shot. Well, I can't take credit for the photo (Thanks Gina), but I couldn't resist making this my Best Shot. I laugh every time I look at this photo. Do you see that expression on Harper's face? It is very representative of her attitude lately.

Just in case you didn't get the full effect with the shot above, here's another one.

Well, at least I have a photo of the four of us together, right?

Head over to Tracey's for more Best Shot Monday.

Let It Snow

We don't get much snow here in Tennessee. So when it does snow, we have a tendency to freak out a little bit. Yesterday evening we received a nice dusting of really wet snow. Overnight the roads iced over and daycare was cancelled. As soon as Miller woke up he asked to go outside to have a snowball fight.

The snow is already almost all melted, but it was fun while it lasted.

Theme Thursday-Holiday Fun

This week's theme over at Stacy's is Holiday Fun. A couple of weeks ago Joanna posted her cool picture of light painting. Since I am majorly challenged right now as far as getting indoor shots of the kids and the weather has been horrible, I thought I would give the light painting a shot.

My husband and the kids put the lights up outside on Saturday, while I was out thrifting. They were so excited to see how the lights looked in the dark. It was really cold out so I did not do too much experminenting, but thought these turned out pretty cool.

Visit The Land of KA for more Holiday Fun.

Wordless Wednesday- Dancing in the Clouds

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In the Air

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind. My husband's grandfather passed away last week and the funeral was yesterday. We flew out REALLY early in the morning and made it there just in time for the visitation. Then we flew back home early this morning. I was only about an hour late for work. Man, I am tired.

Eventhough, I hardly have enough energy to type. I couldn't resist posting some photos from yesterday morning. Since we took off so early in the morning, I was able to get some shots of the sunrise. I took 73 photos and it is amazing to see the progression as the sun actually breaks through. Somehow I narrowed it down to these.

We are all going to miss Grandpa. He was a great man and will live on in our hearts.

Hopefully by tomorrow I will be back in the swing of things. I have so much I need to catch up on.